Beijing, September 25: A gas explosion ripped through a restaurant in downtown Beijing early Friday, injuring three employees and an unknown number of passers-by, police, witnesses and the state Xinhua news agency said.
The blast came amid a massive security clampdown in the Chinese capital ahead of sensitive October 1 celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of communist China.
Those hurt in the explosion in Beijing’s Xinjiekou area, northwest of Tiananmen Square, were taken to hospital but their injuries were not life-threatening, Xinhua said, citing unnamed sources.
The report said the number of passers-by injured was not immediately known.
“According to the initial investigation, the explosion was an accident,” a policewoman told AFP.
The building housing the restaurant had partially collapsed, an AFP reporter at the scene witnessed. The windows of adjacent businesses, and even some 100 metres (109 yards) away, were blown out or shattered.
“It was a Xinjiang restaurant. All I heard was one loud boom,” said a man who runs a nearby convenience store.
Other witnesses confirmed the restaurant featured specialties from the restive northwest region — the scene of deadly ethnic unrest in July that left nearly 200 people dead, according to an official toll.
The blast came on the 60th anniversary of the “peaceful liberation” of Xinjiang by Chinese forces.
Police kept hundreds of onlookers from gaining access to the blast scene, where several diggers and bulldozers were quickly cleaning up the debris.
Neighbourhood resident Sun Jia, 43, said she was awakened by the explosion, which happened shortly before 9:00 am (0100 GMT), and rushed from her home to see what had happened.
“I looked and I saw that the building was all crumbled and there was some smoke. And I saw a young man with blood all over the side of his head and one side of his body. It looked like his ear had been badly injured,” she told AFP.
Sun said she did not see anyone else who had been hurt.
When asked if she feared the blast had been intentional, the woman said she had been told by the management of her building that a gas explosion was to blame.
Security has been ramped up in Beijing in recent weeks ahead of the National Day festivities, but the city was put on edge by two stabbing incidents last week just south of Tiananmen Square that left two people dead and 15 injured.
—Agencies